Season of Christmas, 1 John 2:12-17

This is the season of Christmas and maybe you’re still getting over it all. The papers, the TV & radio, Christmas lights in the streets – they’re all telling us to enjoy ourselves but maybe putting us under pressure, too. What was the Christmas rush like for you this year? Busy? Run off your feet? Anxious, as the financial crisis bites, about how you were going to please everyone? Or sad and upset, because a time of peace and joy turned out to be a time of loneliness and hurt for you?

It’s not too hard to bring to mind someone who struggled this Christmas, or some part of the world where Christmas joy was absent. If that’s you, or someone you know, what word would you want to hear, or say to those people? Would the words of St.John help?

John’s talking about a God who entered our history for everyone; happy, sad, laughing, crying, rejoicing, mourning. Five times, he says. I am writing to you, and then mentions various groups of people. Could it be you he’s writing to? Could it be your name that goes into that reading?

Listen again, and insert your own name … I am writing to you … and he says your name … because you are strong and the word of God abides in you, become aware of how this makes you feel.

Or maybe it’s the name of someone else who needs to hear of Christmas joy, that evil is being overcome, that God wants them to know that the Word of God dwells in them. Talk to God now about this, saying whatever comes to mind.